A Perfect Red
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A Perfect Red
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Narrated by:
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Suzanne Toren
About this listen
A Perfect Red recounts the colorful history of cochineal, a legendary red dye that was once one of the world's most precious commodities. Treasured by the ancient Mexicans, cochineal was sold in the great Aztec marketplaces, where it attracted the attention of the Spanish conquistadors in 1519. Shipped to Europe, the dye created a sensation, producing the brightest, strongest red the world had ever seen. Soon Spain's cochineal monopoly was worth a fortune. Desperate to find their own sources of the elusive dye, the English, French, Dutch, and other Europeans tried to crack the enigma of cochineal. Did it come from a worm, a berry, a seed? Could it be stolen from Mexico and transplanted to their own colonies? Pirates, explorers, alchemists, scientists, and spies - all joined the chase for cochineal, a chase that lasted more than three centuries. A Perfect Red tells their stories - true-life tales of mystery, empire, and adventure, in pursuit of the most desirable color on earth.
Download the accompanying reference guide.©2005 Amy Butler Greenfield (P)2014 Audible Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 64
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5 out of 5 stars
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 286
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 196
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Story4 out of 5 stars 195
In 1848, the British East India Company, having lost its monopoly on the tea trade, engaged Robert Fortune, a Scottish gardener, botanist, and plant hunter, to make a clandestine trip into the interior of China - territory forbidden to foreigners - to steal the closely guarded secrets of tea horticulture and manufacturing. For All the Tea in China is the remarkable account of Fortune's journeys into China - a thrilling narrative that combines history, geography, botany, natural science, and old-fashioned adventure.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Like Fingernails on a Chalkboard
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 215
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1 out of 5 stars
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"If it is possible to understand the American paradox, the marriage of slavery and freedom, Virginia is surely the place to begin," writes Edmund S. Morgan in American Slavery, American Freedom, a study of the tragic contradiction at the core of America. Morgan finds the key to this central paradox in the people and politics of the state that was both the birthplace of the revolution and the largest slaveholding state in the country.
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Explaining the great American contradiction
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Story4 out of 5 stars 51
Ancient China collides with newfangled America in this epic tale of opium smugglers, sea pirates, and dueling clipper ships. Brilliantly illuminating one of the least-understood areas of American history, best-selling author Eric Jay Dolin now traces our fraught relationship with China back to its roots: the unforgiving nineteenth-century seas that separated a brash, rising naval power from a battered ancient empire. It is a prescient fable for our time, one that surprisingly continues to shed light on our modern relationship with China.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Superior book! Excellent read!
- By melissa c. on 01-28-23
By: Eric Jay Dolin
-
For All the Tea in China
- How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History
- By: Sarah Rose
- Narrated by: Sarah Rose
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 286
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 196
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 195
In 1848, the British East India Company, having lost its monopoly on the tea trade, engaged Robert Fortune, a Scottish gardener, botanist, and plant hunter, to make a clandestine trip into the interior of China - territory forbidden to foreigners - to steal the closely guarded secrets of tea horticulture and manufacturing. For All the Tea in China is the remarkable account of Fortune's journeys into China - a thrilling narrative that combines history, geography, botany, natural science, and old-fashioned adventure.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Like Fingernails on a Chalkboard
- By S. Mersereau on 05-28-10
By: Sarah Rose
-
Stoned
- Jewelry, Obsession, and How Desire Shapes the World
- By: Aja Raden
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 256
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 215
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 213
What makes a stone a jewel? What makes a jewel priceless? And why do we covet beautiful things? In this brilliant account of how eight jewels shaped the course of history, jeweler and scientist Aja Raden tells an original and often startling story about our unshakeable addiction to beauty and the darker side of human desire.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Cringe-inducing, vapid, and self-conscious
- By Adeliese Baumann on 12-27-16
By: Aja Raden
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American Slavery, American Freedom
- By: Edmund S. Morgan
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 158
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 132
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 130
"If it is possible to understand the American paradox, the marriage of slavery and freedom, Virginia is surely the place to begin," writes Edmund S. Morgan in American Slavery, American Freedom, a study of the tragic contradiction at the core of America. Morgan finds the key to this central paradox in the people and politics of the state that was both the birthplace of the revolution and the largest slaveholding state in the country.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Explaining the great American contradiction
- By Roger on 09-16-14
By: Edmund S. Morgan
-
Millennium
- From Religion to Revolution: How Civilization Has Changed over a Thousand Years
- By: Ian Mortimer
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 15 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 83
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 78
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 79
In Millennium, best-selling historian Ian Mortimer takes the listener on a whirlwind tour of the last 10 centuries of Western history. It is a journey into a past vividly brought to life and bursting with ideas, that pits one century against another in his quest to measure which century saw the greatest change. We journey from a time when there was a fair chance of your village being burned to the ground by invaders - and dried human dung was a recommended cure for cancer - to a world in which explorers sailed into the unknown and civilizations came into conflict.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Bad ending - literally
- By John Gordon on 12-14-16
By: Ian Mortimer
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Nature's Mutiny
- How the Little Ice Age of the Long Seventeenth Century Transformed the West and Shaped the Present
- By: Philipp Blom
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 101
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 81
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 80
Although hints of a crisis appeared as early as the 1570s, the temperature by the end of the 16th century plummeted so drastically that Mediterranean harbors were covered with ice, birds literally dropped out of the sky, and "frost fairs" were erected on a frozen Thames - with kiosks, taverns, and even brothels that become a semi-permanent part of the city. Recounting the deep legacy and far-ranging consequences of this "Little Ice Age", acclaimed historian Philipp Blom reveals how the European landscape had subtly, but ineradicably, changed by the mid-17th century.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Starts On Track; End Becomes Ideological Rant
- By Danioton on 06-07-20
By: Philipp Blom
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1493
- Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
- By: Charles C. Mann
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 17 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,119
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,769
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,768
More than 200 million years ago, geological forces split apart the continents. Isolated from each other, the two halves of the world developed radically different suites of plants and animals. When Christopher Columbus set foot in the Americas, he ended that separation at a stroke. Driven by the economic goal of establishing trade with China, he accidentally set off an ecological convulsion as European vessels carried thousands of species to new homes across the oceans.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating Mindbending History.
- By Betsy Powel on 12-19-11
By: Charles C. Mann
-
A History of the World in 6 Glasses
- By: Tom Standage
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 4,580
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 3,948
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,960
Throughout human history, certain drinks have done much more than just quench thirst. As Tom Standage relates with authority and charm, six of them have had a surprisingly pervasive influence on the course of history, becoming the defining drink during a pivotal historical period. A History of the World in 6 Glasses tells the story of humanity from the Stone Age to the 21st century through the lens of beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fun and Informative
- By Stoker on 09-09-11
By: Tom Standage
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Imperial Twilight
- The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age
- By: Stephen R. Platt
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 856
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 725
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 721
As one of the most potent turning points in the country's modern history, the Opium War has since come to stand for everything that today's China seeks to put behind it. In this dramatic, epic story, award-winning historian Stephen Platt sheds new light on the early attempts by Western traders and missionaries to "open" China even as China's imperial rulers were struggling to manage their country's decline and Confucian scholars grappled with how to use foreign trade to China's advantage.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
Balanced readable narrative about the Opium Wars
- By Carl A. Gallozzi on 09-05-18
By: Stephen R. Platt
-
Sicily: Three Thousand Years of Human History
- By: Sandra Benjamin
- Narrated by: Fred Filbrich
- Length: 16 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 119
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 101
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 100
Emigration of people from Sicily often overshadows the importance of the people who immigrated to the island through the centuries. These have included several who became Sicily's rulers, along with Jews, Ligurians, and Albanians. Greeks, Romans, Vandals, Goths, Byzantines, Muslims, Normans, Hohenstaufens, Spaniards, Bourbons, the Savoy Kingdom of Italy and the modern era have all held sway, and left lasting influences on the island's culture and architecture.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Surprisingly compelling!
- By P. Strayer on 08-25-12
By: Sandra Benjamin
-
The Paradox of Jamestown
- 1585-1700
- By: Christopher Collier, James Lincoln Collier
- Narrated by: Jim Manchester
- Length: 1 hr and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 308
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 278
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 278
> The Paradox of Jamestown discusses the circumstances surrounding English colonization of Virginia and the evolution of slavery in that colony. Beginning with an examination of 16th- and 17th-century life in England, the authors explain many of the reasons - social, political, religious, and economic - people chose to leave the Old World for a new life in the Americas. They describe the early interactions between the settlers and the Indians, the difficulties those groups had in establishing cooperative relationships, and the many difficulties the settlers had in adjusting to life in the New World.
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3 out of 5 stars
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poorly Accurate
- By Bertie on 12-02-20
By: Christopher Collier, and others
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Empire
- By: Niall Ferguson
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 15 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 121
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 108
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 108
The British Empire was the largest in all history: the nearest thing to global domination ever achieved. The world we know today is in large measure the product of Britain's age of empire. The global spread of capitalism, telecommunications, the English language, and the institutions of representative government - all these can be traced back to the extraordinary expansion of Britain's economy, population, and culture from the 17th century until the mid-20th. On a vast and vividly colored canvas, Empire shows how the British Empire acted as midwife to modernity.
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3 out of 5 stars
-
Not Balanced till Conclusion
- By Hectoris on 08-13-20
By: Niall Ferguson
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Born in Blackness
- Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War
- By: Howard W. French
- Narrated by: James Fouhey
- Length: 16 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 196
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 170
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 171
Born in Blackness vitally reframes the story of medieval and emerging Africa, demonstrating how the economic ascendancy of Europe, the anchoring of democracy in the West, and the fulfillment of so-called Enlightenment ideals all grew out of Europe's dehumanizing engagement with the "dark" continent. In fact, French reveals, the first impetus for the Age of Discovery was not—as we are so often told, even today—Europe's yearning for ties with Asia, but rather its centuries-old desire to forge a trade in gold with legendarily rich Black societies in the heart of West Africa.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
American History World History Our History
- By Bill on 06-13-22
By: Howard W. French
-
Making Haste from Babylon
- The Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World: A New History
- By: Nick Bunker
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 18 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 87
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 70
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 69
At the end of 1618, a blazing green star soared across the night sky over the northern hemisphere. From the Philippines to the Arctic, the comet became a sensation and a symbol, a warning of doom or a promise of salvation. Two years later, as the Pilgrims prepared to sail across the Atlantic on board the Mayflower, the atmosphere remained charged with fear and expectation. Men and women readied themselves for war, pestilence, or divine retribution. Against this background, and amid deep economic depression, the Pilgrims conceived their enterprise of exile.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent, detailed and eye-opening
- By David on 09-20-15
By: Nick Bunker
-
Empire's Crossroads
- A History of the Caribbean from Columbus to the Present Day
- By: Carrie Gibson
- Narrated by: Romy Nordlinger
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 119
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 105
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 105
Ever since Christopher Columbus stepped off the Santa Maria onto what is today San Salvador, in the Bahamas, and announced that he had arrived in the Orient, the Caribbean has been a stage for projected fantasies and competition between world powers. In Empire’s Crossroads, British American historian Carrie Gibson traces the story of this coveted area from the northern rim of South America up to Cuba, and from discovery through colonialism to today, offering a vivid, panoramic view of this complex region and its rich, important history.
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1 out of 5 stars
-
Careless production mars storytelling
- By Brenda Thomas on 03-31-16
By: Carrie Gibson
-
The Victory of Reason
- How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success
- By: Rodney Stark
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 105
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 94
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 94
In The Victory of Reason, Rodney Stark advances a revolutionary, controversial, and long overdue idea: that Christianity and its related institutions are, in fact, directly responsible for the most significant intellectual, political, scientific, and economic breakthroughs of the past millennium. In Stark's view, what has propelled the West is not the tension between secular and non-secular society, nor the pitting of science and the humanities against religious belief. Christian theology, Stark asserts, is the very font of reason.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Absolutely incredible history book!
- By Daniel on 01-02-20
By: Rodney Stark
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From colorful 30,000-year-old threads found on the floor of a Georgian cave to the Indian calicoes that sparked the Industrial Revolution, The Golden Thread weaves an illuminating story of human ingenuity. Design journalist Kassia St. Clair guides us through the technological advancements and cultural customs that would redefine human civilization - from the fabric that allowed mankind to achieve extraordinary things (traverse the oceans and shatter athletic records) and survive in unlikely places (outer space and the South Pole).
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Excellent for those interested in textiles
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Threads of Life
- A History of the World Through the Eye of a Needle
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From the political propaganda of the Bayeux Tapestry, World War I soldiers coping with PTSD, and the maps sewn by schoolgirls in the New World, to the AIDS quilt, Hmong story clothes, and pink pussyhats, women and men have used the language of sewing to make their voices heard, even in the most desperate of circumstances. Threads of Life is a chronicle of identity, protest, memory, power, and politics told through the stories of needlework.
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Textile bucket list.
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Empire of Cotton
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Sofi Thanhauser brilliantly tells five stories—Linen, Cotton, Silk, Synthetics, Wool—about the clothes we wear and where they come from, illuminating our world in unexpected ways. She takes us from the opulent court of Louis XIV to the labor camps in modern-day Chinese-occupied Xinjiang. We see how textiles were once dyed with lichen, shells, bark, saffron, and beetles, displaying distinctive regional weaves and knits, and how the modern Western garment industry has refashioned our attire into the homogenous and disposable uniforms popularized by fast-fashion brands.
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Jewels
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Throughout history, precious stones have inspired passions and poetry, quests and curses, sacred writings and unsacred actions. In this scintillating book, journalist Victoria Finlay embarks on her own globe-circling search for the real stories behind some of the gems we prize most. Blending adventure travel, geology, exciting new research, and her own irresistible charm, Finlay has fashioned a treasure hunt for some of the most valuable, glamorous, and mysterious substances on earth.
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Just as good as her other books
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A Short History of the World According to Sheep
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From the plains of ancient Mesopotamia to the rolling hills of medieval England to the vast sheep farms of modern-day Australia, sheep have been central to the human story. Starting with our Neolithic ancestors' first forays into sheep-rearing nearly 10,000 years ago, these remarkable animals have fed us, clothed us, changed our diet and languages, helped us to win wars, decorated our homes and financed the conquest of large swathes of the earth.
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I couldn't stop talking about sheep after reading
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Brimming with rich, electrifying tales of the precious dye and its ancient heritage, Indigo is also the story of a personal quest: Catherine McKinley is the descendant of a clan of Scots who wore indigo tartan; Jewish "rag traders"; a Massachusetts textile factory owner; and African slaves - her ancestors were traded along the same Saharan routes as indigo, where a length of blue cotton could purchase human life.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Poorly written, Poorly narrated
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Fibershed
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There is a major disconnect between what we wear and our knowledge of its impact on land, air, water, labor, and human health. Even those who value access to safe, local, nutritious food have largely overlooked the production of fiber, dyes, and the chemistry that forms the backbone of modern textile production. While humans are 100 percent reliant on their second skin, it’s common to think little about the biological and human cultural context from which our clothing derives.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Interested In Sustainable Life, Not Just Food?
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Silk
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 5
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Throughout history, across cultures and countries, silk has reigned as the undeniable queen of fabrics, yet its origins and evolution remain a mystery. In a gorgeous and sweeping narrative, Silk weaves together its intricate story and the indelible mark it has left on humanity.
By: Aarathi Prasad
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Only the Clothes on Her Back
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 12
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Story4 out of 5 stars 12
Only the Clothes on Her Back uncovers practices, commonly known then, but now long forgotten, which made textiles - clothing, cloth, bedding, and accessories, such as shoes and hats - a unique form of property that people without rights could own and exchange. The value of textiles depended on law, and it was law that turned these goods into a secure form of property for marginalized people, who not only used these textiles as currency, credit, and capital, but also as entree into the new republic's economy and governing institutions.
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1 out of 5 stars
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- By Susan on 12-29-22
By: Laura F. Edwards
What listeners say about A Perfect Red
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Yarngirl52
- 02-10-18
just as wonderful the second time
second time through and now I need to find my cochineal to dye some yarn.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Compsognathus
- 09-18-22
Long
Very interesting story, but longer than necessary. Last chapter is totally worthless!
Well read thought
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Tobia
- 08-17-16
History of a peculiar substance through the ages
This is a well researched, well written, and perfectly narrated history of the color red and of the first widely available red dye, Cochineal.
Very informative, the book includes the history of the relevant times, so as to be accessible even to those who might not be knowledgeable on kings and empires of the past centuries.
Mostly entertaining, except in a few boring places. Recommended if you're interested in the middle ages, the European conquest of the Americas, mysteries, espionage, and the actual PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN.
The narration is excellent, always clear, including great pronunciation of all the Spanish, French, and Italian names.
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7 people found this helpful